The Marauders and Lily read The Philosophers Stone
by Nanuk Solitura
Summary: When a strange book appears in Godrics Hollow, James, Lily, Sirius, Remus and Baby Harry can't help but read it. Maybe their future selves sent it back in hope that they could change things. HIATUS
1. Prologue

Hiya xx

Hiya xx

This is my first Harry Potter fic so please R & R!

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James, Sirius, Remus and Lily read The Philosopher's Stone 

A blanket of silence had settled over Godric's Hollow. Curtains were drawn, doors locked, lights turned out. Fear covered the entire place and the atmosphere was as think and as tense as possible. A solitary cricket chirped quietly, bobbing up and down on a drooping leaf, gently rubbing its legs together its tiny pin-prick sized black eyes darted around taking in the quiet street. But suddenly it zipped away in alarm as a strangled yell shattered the quiet.

"SIRIUS PUT HIM DOWN!"

Lily Potter raced into her warmly lit living room and threw herself at her son. One year old Harry Potter giggled as his Godfather tossed him into the air.

"Lily, calm down he loves it" laughed James Potter from his relaxed position on the soft red couch.

Lily just turned to him and gave him her 'don't mess with me' look and he shrank back in defeat immediately. She turned back to Sirius who was now lobbing Harry back towards the ceiling. Harry squealed in delight as he free fell back to earth, only to have his fiery eyed mother snatch him from mid air.

"Sirius, you drop him? And I vanish your eye balls!" warmed Lily green eyes blazing.

"Okay, okay I won't throw him anymore!" replied Sirius flopping down in a squishy red armchair.

"Pa-foo! Pa-foooo!" whined baby Harry reaching his tiny arms towards his lounging godfather. Sirius grinned smugly and held his arms out for the baby. Lily rolled her eyes and gently dropped Harry into his lap. Sirius hugged Harry once before standing up.

"Gotta pee" he announced walking over to the opposite armchair and placing the wriggling baby in Remus' lap.

"Sit with Moony a minute Prongslet"

Remus smiled and held him close. Harry toothlessly grinned up at him and snuggled into his robes grabbing tiny fistfuls of the soft material and curling into a tight ball in the werewolf's lap. Remus rubbed his back gently.

"Moo-ey" gurgled Harry happily drooling on his robes.

Lily smiled knowingly at the pair and James slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her onto his lap. Lily slid down the couch and stretched out yawning. She rested her head comfortably on James lap and smiled up at him.

"You're a good pillow"

"I should think so too" said James running his long fingers through her silky red hair.

Sirius walked back in whistling and grinned.

"Aww, everyone's all loved up" he laughed. But it wasn't really that funny. They had spent months running, hiding and fleeing from Voldemort. He had barely seen James smile in days. So scared that the Fidelus Charm would fail.

That he would find them.

Kill them.

Sirius laughed dryly. It wouldn't happen though. He rather die then give them up. They were his family. His _real_ family. And he loved it when they were this happy. He plopped down in the free armchair and turned to Remus.

"Your gonna have dried drool on your robes tomorrow Moo-"

There was suddenly a blinding flash of electric blue light and something shot out of mid air and hit Sirius in the face with a resounding crack.

He yelled in pain and fell to his knees on the floor clutching at his nose.

Lily and James jumped up and pulled out their wands racing to the windows and ripping back the curtains. Remus had wrapped one arm firmly around Harry who was now crying at all the shouting and pulled out his wand.

"Oh I'm fine, don't worry about me!" yelled Sirius sarcastically dabbing gingerly at his broken face.

Lily deemed the street empty and crossed the room to Sirius' side.

James joined her a second later and tried to pry Sirius' hands from his bloodied face.

"Padfoot move your hands and stop acting like a baby" said James tugging on his fingers, trying to jab his wand in the gaps.

"Ow! Bloody Hell, OW PRONGS!"

Lily's eyes were still darting around the room uncertainly but the focused on Sirius who had moved his hands but was still groaning.

"Sirius for god's sake a flobberworm wouldn't put up this much fuss" said Remus from above him, looking down concernedly on the trio.

Sirius glared up at him and cursed violently when Lily prodded his nose with her wand.

"Sirius! Don't swear in front of Harry, you'll be damned if her repeats that!" said Lily angrily prodding him again in punishment.

Remus was bouncing Harry on his hip trying to sooth the startled baby.

"Come on Harry, Padfoot's just being silly. Just a big daft dog isn't he?" grinned Remus comfortingly. Harry looked up into the werewolf's handsome face and hiccupped on his tears as he giggled.

Remus laughed. "Knew I could get a smile"

"Episkey" murmured James, poking Sirius' nose, making him swear violently again. Remus glared and covered the baby's small ears.

"Scourgify" said Lily, siphoning the blood off his face quickly but carefully, and checking no other damage had been done.

She turned around to see James knelt by the object that had broken through the wards.

"Be careful James" she said concernedly pulling Sirius to his feet.

Remus passed Harry to her who gurgled happily at being in his mothers arms. Remus crouched down by James and started muttering various incantations.

"Well?" asked Sirius who was rubbing his newly fixed nose.

"It's safe…it's completely normal" said James standing up confused.

"What is it?" asked Lily holding Harry close protectively.

"A book" replied Remus standing up with it in hand. Lily took a step back warily.

"It's from Voldemort" she said darkly looking at it fearfully.

"No, I don't think so. It's harmless for one thing and second nothing can be sent through the wards Dumbledore put up. In or out. He can't have sent it" said Remus reasonably.

"What's it called?" asked Sirius curiously. Remus turned the book over.

"Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone" he read out.

There was a silence. Then James started to laugh.

"Nice one Moony" he chuckled "That was good for on the spot"

"Remus just handed him the book silently. James took it his smile disappearing. He paled visibly as his eyes scanned the cover and he looked up in shock.

"Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone" he murmured under his breath. Everyone's eyes swivelled to Harry who was chewing innocently on his mothers scarlet locks.

"Oh God" whispered Sirius. "When was it published?"

"1997"

Lily started suddenly. "A book? A book from the future about Harry? About his life?" she asked disbelievingly.

"I guess" said James looking lost for words, which didn't happen very often.

"So someone from the future sent it? Maybe it was one of us? Or Harry himself? said Sirius looking curious now and taking the book from James, to read the blurb on the back.

"Must of" replied Remus running a hand through has brown hair, rattled.

"So let's read it" said James firmly. Everyone looked at him uncertain. "Well think about it, if we sent it into the past then there's obviously something we're supposed to know or change is isn't there?"

Sirius nodded. "That makes sense"

Remus nodded. Lily looked round at them all and sighed.

"I guess" she reluctantly admitted.

She handed Harry back to Remus and settled back onto the couch with James, holding him close.

"It'll be alright Lils" he whispered kissing her temple reassuringly.

She smiled and tilted her head for a proper kiss.

"I know. I'm just nervous" she replied resting her head on his lap again, lying on the couch.

Remus had gotten comfy with Harry safely tucked back up in his robes like a little cub. Sirius had sat in the free armchair and opened the book to the first page.

"Okie dokie, everyone ready? He asked glancing around.

"Yup" was the reply in unison.

Sirius cleared his throat jokingly and started with a melodramatic tone.

"Chapter 1…The Boy…Who Lived…"

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Please R & R!! Criticism very welcome too!! But compliments as well :P

Emma xoxo


	2. The Boy Who Lived

Hiya xx

Hiya xx

Thanks for all the reviews on the first chapter!! They really helped!!

Thanks to **katiebear89** for her tips, you were so right. I looked back over it and cringed at all the mistakes! I'll check this chapter over more carefully this time, but knowing me there will still be mistakes :P

I know this idea had been used before but I couldn't help trying it myself.

Hope you're enjoying it xx

Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter (damn it) – JK does.

Also I know other people have done this idea and this is not a rip off of your stories, this is just my take on it, it's different. So don't sue :P

Emma xoxo

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

**Chapter 2**** – The Boy Who Lived**

**Mr and-**

"Hang on a minute! Who wrote it?" Remus butted in suddenly.

Sirius sighed and tipped the book onto its side to read the spine.

"Umm…J.K Rowling," replied Sirius, confused. "Why?"

"Just wondered if we knew him or not," shrugged Remus, tickling Harry's tummy absentmindedly who giggled adorably.

**Mr and Mrs-**

"Well what makes you so sure it's a man?" Lily shot, giving him a look, her eyebrows raised.

"Well I can't say for definite, obviously, but it probably is," replied Remus.

"Bet you a galleon it's a women," Lily answered daringly, frowning at him.

"How would we tell?" replied Remus, looking puzzled.

"Can I please finish?!" asked Sirius grumpily.

"Sorry," Lily and Remus muttered sheepishly. "Carry on."

**Mr and Mrs Dursley-**

"Oh my God!" exclaimed Lily in shock, clutching James' knee.

Sirius slammed the book onto the armchair arm and scowled.

"Do you want me to read it or not?! Because we could just put it on the shelf for another rainy day and read a joke book or something, if you'll find that more interesting! I haven't gotten four words in and I've been interrupted three times!" he stormed.

"Sorry, It's just that's my sisters surname now! She married Vernon Dursley and had a son as well! I can't remember what his name is, but he'll be about Harry's age… That's them! I haven't seen her in years but I remember their name," cried Lily, sitting up and propping herself up against James, who wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

"Who would start a book with them?" said James disgustedly. "Last time I saw them they put newspaper on the couch before I sat down," he spat, offended.

"I apologised on their behalf for that," said Lily, quickly looking up.

"I know, I know, I just…HATE them, that's all," he replied with a violent hand gesture.

"Can I please continue?!" yelled Sirius, making them all jump.

"Sorry," they all repeated again. "Carry on." said Lily.

**Mr and Mrs Dursley of Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal-**

"Pfft! Normal my arse," scoffed James.

"I know," agreed Lily. "Neat freaks."

**-thank you very much.**

"Sorry! We were only saying!" muttered James, holding his hands up in defence.

"No, that's what's written!" replied Sirius quickly.

"Oh, that's alright then," smiled James, now tracing small circles on the back of Lily's hand.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just wouldn't hold with such nonsense.**

"You can say that again," mumbled James.

**Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings which made drills.**

"What are drills?" asked Sirius, looking up puzzled.

"They're metal machines that punch holes in wood and other stuff," replied Lily. "Didn't you take Muggle Studies Sirius?"

"Yeah, but only to piss off my parents. I didn't actually pay attention!" he scoffed.

"Figures," said Lily shaking her head.

**He was a big beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blond and had nearly twice the usual amount**** of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning her beck over garden fences spying on neighbours.**

"They sound like an attractive couple don't they?" said Remus, his index finger wrapped in Harry's tiny fist. "No offence Lily," he added quickly.

"None taken, her husband looks like a overweight troll," replied Lily with a grin.

James and Remus laughed and Sirius carried on.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley**** and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere**

They all snorted loudly.

"Dudley? Oh god the poor boy!" cried Sirius throwing his head back and releasing a barking laugh.

"Don't ask me where my sister got her inspiration for that name," laughed Lily giggling.

"I can see some serious bullying in store for this kid," said James whistling in awe.

"Not if he gets as big as his father, _believe_ me," said Lily firmly. "They'll just bounce off him."

Sirius laughed again and looked back at the book.

**The Dursleys had everything they ever wanted, but they also had a secret,**** and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

James glared. "Hey! There's nothing wrong with Potters!"

"It's not just us darling, it's anything different to them that they hate," said Lily but looking quite angry.

**Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursleys sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.**

"That's nice," muttered Lily.

"Good-for-nothing! Cheek!" cried James angrily.

"Although being _unDursleyish _is probably a good thing," pointed out Remus.

"But still…" started James looking annoyed.

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street.**** The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"OI!" yelled James, outraged. "There's nothing wrong with Harry."

Remus was fuming silently in his chair, holding the now sleeping baby close to him. "Harry's too good for the likes of them anyway," he muttered coldly.

"Exactly," nodded Sirius darkly before carrying on.

**When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts-**

"The story hasn't started yet?" asked Sirius, his brow furrowed.

"Well, that was so boring it doesn't count as a story," replied James scathingly.

"Hear hear," added Lily.

**-there**** was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"And she didn't want him mixing with Harry?" cried Lily in outrage "Little brat."

**None of**** them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window. **

**At half past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase,**** pecked Mrs Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls "Little tyke" chortled Mr Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive. **

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar - a cat reading a map.**

Remus smirked. "Sounds familiar doesn't it?"

James grinned back. "A certain former professor of ours."

"That's a bit presumptuous isn't it?" said Lily.

"Well how many cats can read maps?" replied James.

"Look it doesn't matter we'll find out soon enough!" snapped Sirius impatiently, wanting to carry on reading.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realise what he had seen -then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight.**

**What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light.**

"Typical muggle," murmured James. "You don't understand it, so you ignore it."

**Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive** - **No, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs.**

"Definitely McGonagall," smiled Remus firmly.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town, he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"God what a boring life!" exclaimed James abruptly.

I know! Drills today, drills tomorrow, drills the next day and the day after that, and the day after that," reeled off Sirius

"I could _never_ be a muggle," said Remus, shaking his head.

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes - the get-ups you saw on young people!"**

**He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald green cloak!**

"Like yours and Harry's eyes Lils," said James warmly squeezing her gently. Lily smiled and returned the hug sliding back down the couch and resting her head in his lap.

**The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt - these people were obviously collecting for something ... yes, that would be it.**

**The traffic moved on, and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills.  
Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning.** _**He**_** didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though the people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead.**

"Why are people being so stupid?" exclaimed Remus.

"Maybe something big has happened?" answered Sirius looking puzzled. "Funny though ain't it? Muggles probably think the owls are going south for winter," he joked.

"But Sirius what if something happened? Something bad? Like the minister's been killed? Or Hogwarts has been attacked? Parents would need to know what happened straight away. All of them," retorted Lily quickly.

"He'll never take Hogwarts. Not while Dumbledore is there," said James firmly. "No way."

"But what if he's not there James? What if Dumbledore's been killed?" she replied anxiously, twisting her fingers together in her lap.

"Dumbledore? Be taken out?" said Sirius smiling. "Never."

They all smiled thinly. Although it was hard to imagine Dumbledore being killed in the war they all knew that he wasn't invincible. No one was.

"Well let's find out yeah?" asked Sirius brightly, trying to lift the plunging mood.

They all nodded plastering fake smiled on their faces.

**Most of them had never seen an owl even at night time. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled a five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"He gets his kicks from being horrible to people?" said Remus in disgust. "Sorry Lily, but I can't believe you're related to these people."

"Don't be sorry, I'm bloody ashamed to even know them," she said with an unusual amount of venom in her voice.

**He was in a very good mood until lunch-time, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the baker's opposite.**

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard -"  
"- yes, their son, Harry -"**

Sirius looked up in shock.

"What?! What about Harry?" cried Lily in distress. "Oh god what if something's happened to him?"

"Sirius! For god sake read!" shouted James frantically.

"Steady on Prongs, I'm going I'm going," replied Sirius hurriedly, his eyes anxiously scanning the page for the right spot.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking...**

**No, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name. **

**He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry.**

"Doubt it," muttered James.

**Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"They're horrible names," said Lily, wrinkling her nose.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her - if he'd had a sister like that... **

"Thanks Tuna," said Lily darkly**.**

**-but all the same, those people in cloaks...**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon, and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.**

"Wow, was that actually an apology?" cried Sirius in mock amazement.

The others grinned.

**It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare: "Don't be sorry my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like your self should be celebrating this happy, happy day!"**

Silence covered the room, only disturbed by sleeping Harry's gentle breathing.

"Gone? He's gone?" said Lily in disbelief.

James suddenly jumped up, pulling Lily into his arms and swinging her around, laughing.

"HE'S GONE LILS! He's actually dead, we did it!" he yelled spinning her around before kissing her deeply. Grinning, Lily pulled herself free and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, starting to sob into his shoulder.

"Lily? These are happy tears…right?" he asked uncertainly. She nodded into his shoulder and lifted her face and kissed him again.

Remus meanwhile, was hugging Sirius tightly, Harry sandwiched between them looking a bit disgruntled. They broke free and Sirius took Harry and lifted him high into the air, spinning around laughing.

"You hear that Prongslet?! He's gone! The big old meanie's gone!" he shouted, grinning.

Lily released James, who looked relieved and rubbed his neck, and launched herself at Remus who staggered on impact.

Sirius had transformed into Padfoot and at rolling around on the floor chasing a giggling Harry and barking joyfully.

"Shhh Sirius, you'll wake everyone up," giggled Lily, still firmly attached to Remus who was gently trying to pry her off.

Sirius quickly turned back into a man and moved to hug James.

"Uh, rabies," James joked pushing him off.

Sirius laughed and hugged him anyway. Lily and Remus moved over and the four of them held each, other laughing and celebrating.

The heartfelt hug was disturbed by a little wail from the carpet. Harry was sat on the floor pouting up at the adults, upset at being left out.

"Come here sport," chuckled James lifting his son into the group embrace. Harry hiccupped happily and rested his head against his father's chest. The group sighed contently, holding each other close.

"So shall we carry on reading?" suggested Remus, his voice muffled from being squashed between Lily and Sirius.

"Oh yeah," replied Lily wriggling from the tangle.

"Yeah, let's find out how they killed him," said James excitedly, passing Harry back to Remus before heading back to the comfy couch with Lily.

Remus settled gently in the armchair Harry against his chest. The baby sat on his thigh and grabbed at one of Remus' hands. Harry looked confusedly at Remus' hand, then at his own tiny one, then up into Remus' hazel eyes as if wanting to know why his were so much bigger.

"Don't worry Emeralds, they'll grow," he laughed pulling the baby softly against his midriff. Harry yawned widely, showing his tiny, just broken through teeth and dropped his head comfortably against the warm body. Remus stroked his back gently as the baby slowly dropped into sleep.

Sirius had bounded back to his chair and was flicking back to the right page.

"Okay let's carry on with the best story ever!" he said, grinning like a school boy.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.  
Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was.**

**He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"Sounds like a really fun guy," murmured Remus.

"We figured that out a while a go Moony," smiled James.

**As he pulled into the driveway at number four, the first thing he saw - and it didn't improve his mood - was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

"If it is McGonagall, she won't be happy," said Lily laughing.

"Yeah, she'll be giving him that look that makes you feel like you're about this big," indicated Sirius holding his thumb and his index finger about a centimetre apart.

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"There we go," grinned Sirius. James sniffed in mock sadness.

"And there was me thinking that that look was just for me" he sobbed jokingly.

**Was this normal cat behaviour,-**

"No," they all said in unison.

**-Mr. Dursley wondered? Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learnt a new word (Shan't).**

"Sounds fun-filled doesn't it?" commented James.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living-room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

**"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern."**

"Because Voldemort is gone," chanted Lily, in a sing-song voice.

**The news reader allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

"Showers of owls?" muttered Sirius. "God muggles are stupid."

"It's called sarcasm Sirius," corrected Remus with a sigh.

Sirius just glared.

**"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain that I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars!**

"We did that in our sixth year remember?" laughed James. "We sent showers of multi coloured sparks over the Herbology huts and Professor Sprout tried to set the Venomous Tentacula on us," he chuckled.

"I remember that!" cried Sirius happily. "That was a good prank."

Lily tried to hide her grin and scowled at them. "Probably scared the daylights out of the second years" she said disapprovingly.

"I tried to stop them Lily but they wouldn't listen," said Remus sombrely.

"Well a least Remus has an ounce of decency," smiled Lily.

Sirius and James looked up in outrage.

"Tried to stop us?! It was your idea?!" they cried together glaring at him.

Remus flushed visibly and started to stammer.

"Well, I only m-mentioned tha-that it might be a f-funny idea," he stuttered uncertainly cowering under Lily's shocked gaze.

She seemed content with his remorse and settled back against James. Remus caught Sirius' and James' eyes and winked.

"Arsehole." whispered Sirius with a small grin.

**Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early**

"Nope." said Lily happily. "Voldemort's gone."

- **It's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters...Mrs. Dursley came into the living-room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Err - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

"As if I'd bother contacting her," spat Lily.

**As he expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.  
"No," she said sharply. "Why?"  
"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."  
"So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.  
"Well, I just thought... maybe ... it was something to do with ... you know ... her lot."**

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name 'Potter'.**

**He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son - he'd be about Dudley's age now wouldn't he?"  
"I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.  
"What's his name again? Howard isn't it?"  
"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Harry's a great name!" cried Lily indignantly. "You can't talk!_ Dudley _was hardly a stroke of genius was it?"

**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."  
He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it was waiting for something.  
Was he imagining things?**

"McGonagall's stalking them," chuckled Sirius.

**Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did ... if it got out that they were related to a pair of - well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

James just grumbled angrily**.**

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind ... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on. He yawned and turned over. It couldn't affect them ...  
How very wrong he was.**

"Uh oh," warned Remus. "That probably means were going to be seeing more of them," he groaned. "Well, hearing anyway."

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed in the next street, nor when the two owls swooped overhead**.

**In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground.**

"Apparation," murmured Remus, in habit.

**The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.**

"Dumbledore!" they all cried. "He'll probably say what's been going on."

**He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realise that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realise he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

"McGonagall," whispered Lily.

"We figured that out a while ago Lils," smiled James.

"I know…just saying," she muttered.

**He had found what he was looking for in his inside pocket.**

**It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

"My old Dad had one of those," commented Sirius. "When we were little he would turn out the light in our bedrooms when we went to bed, to try make us not be afraid of the dark," he scowled. "God, Reg would scream his head off."

**He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left in the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him.**

**If anyone looked out of their window now, even the beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street towards number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat.**

**He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.  
"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

No one spoke, but everyone smiled.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

**"You'd be stiff too if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls ... shooting stars ... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"I remember him," grinned Lily. "He dated my mate for a bit, but could never turn up on time for dates, so she dumped him," she giggled.

**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"Eleven years?" whispered Sirius in shock. "Voldemort's already been around for eleven years! So that means this happens this year!" he cried whooping with joy.

Lily sniffed and hugged James harder around the middle. He grinned and squeezed her tightly.

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes swapping rumours."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on: "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?"**

"A what?" asked Sirius, puzzled.

"Dunno, some sort of sweet?" replied James uncertainly.

**"A what?"**

Sirius grinned. "Great minds think alike."

"**A sherbet lemon. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"_Greater_ minds think alike," retorted James with a grin. Sirius scowled.

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for sherbet lemons.**

**"As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like your self can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort".**

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was un-sticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice.**

**"It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

**"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half-exasperated, half-admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the one You-Know - oh, all right, Voldemort - was frightened of"**

"You know, plus me," scoffed Sirius in mock arrogance.

"Yeah, you wish Padfoot," sputtered James, chocked with laughter.

Sirius glowered at him.

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

**"Only because you're too - well - noble to use them."**

"Someone's got a crush," laughed James.

"Eww, that's disgusting James, they're both over sixty!" exclaimed Lily wrinkling her nose.

"So you won't find me attractive at sixty?" asked James indignantly.

"James that's not what I said, I mean its Dumbledore and McGonagall? Is doesn't get more wrong than that!"

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

The four shuddered but stayed silent as Sirius read on.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing to the rumours that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

"Me. Go on let it of been me," prayed Sirius, under his breath, crossing his fingers.

"Padfoot, read!" snapped James anxiously. "I wanna know what stopped him."

"Me," Sirius muttered again, barely audible.

"SIRIUS!" Remus, James and Lily shouted together impatiently.

"Jeez! Im going, Im going," he replied hastily.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now.**

**It was plain that whatever 'everyone' was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another sherbet lemon and did not answer.**

**"What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. **

"No," whispered Lily. "He c-cant of, the Fidelus Charm…" she trailed off as her emerald eyes welled up and threatened to over flow.

"Oh God," said Sirius, dumbstruck. "But, but Im the Secret Keeper, so-so if he came here… that must mean… I told him."

"Sirius you don't know that!" replied James at once, trying to comfort his shaking wife.

"Anyway, it said he was destroyed didn't it? Maybe you kill him James? Or any of us, I mean were all going to stay here for a couple of days, so we could of taken him together," reasoned Remus sensibly, but was white as a sheet and clutching at Harry tightly.

"Remus is right," said James shakily. "Let's just find out what happened first."

"Well it's not like he's coming over for afternoon tea is it James?" piped up Lily nervously. "You know as well as I do he'd come with one purpose," she stammered.

"Lils, don't," he whispered, pulling her into his lap and hugging her tightly against his chest.

"G-go on Padfoot," instructed James determinedly.

Sirius nodded and his eyes flicked reluctantly back to the book.

**He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're - dead.**

Lily and James just looked at each other, and something unspoken passed between the pair.

Lily wrapped her arms around James' neck and buried her face in his shoulder. She sobbed silently into his neck, but not for herself, and not even James.

But for Harry.

Who would now be an orphan.

She looked up suddenly, eyes searching for her baby, but Remus had already crossed the room with Harry, who was now wide awake, and placed him in his grieving mother's arms.

And the Potter family just held each other.

"Were going to stop it James," came Sirius' voice determinedly.

James had never seen this look in his friend's eyes before.

"I swear."

Remus nodded firmly. "That's why we have the book. To make things different. Change them. Voldemort will _not_ find you."

James smiled gently at his best friends. "I know you will."

He nodded and wrapped his arms further around his wife and son.

"You hear me Lils? It won't happen. I promise you. I will not let him lay one manky finger on you _or_ Harry."

"I know," she whispered. "Just hearing it…" she started but hiccupped on a tear and laughed hollowly.

"Hang on a minute…Harry! It didn't say what happened to Harry!" cried Remus suddenly sitting up.

"I don't think I've got the strength for this," murmured Lily wiping at her tear-stained face.

"Yes you do Lily. Because it's not going to happen. We _will _change it. That's why it's here after all," said James firmly, tilting her chin so she looked him in the eye. "I promise you."

"You've never broken a promise before," she pointed out smiling.

"Exactly," grinned James.

"Well come on then," Lily shook her head and slipped back down next to James, placing Harry in his lap.

"Sure?" asked Sirius quickly.

Lily and James nodded.

"Okay."

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James ... I can't believe it ... I didn't want to believe it ... Oh, Albus ..."**

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know ... I know ..." he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.**

Lily flinched and gave a small dry sob reaching for her baby boy. Harry whimpered at leaving his father's embrace, but on seeing his mother, his face lit up brightly.

"He won't hurt you Harry. Not this time," she whispered, clutching him to her.

"But hang on…It says _he tried_? He didn't succeed?" asked Remus suddenly, looking inquiringly at Sirius.

"Oh!" Sirius looked back at the book.

**"But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."**

A stunned silence swept through the room, and all eyes turned to the baby.

Harry looked up at his mother and grinned toothlessly.

"Harry s-stopped Voldemort?" asked Lily, perplexed.

"That's what it says," replied Sirius, re-reading the paragraph frantically.

"My son? My barely-one-year-old son? Stopped the greatest dark wizard to walk our earth?" stuttered James, baffled.

Sirius nodded, mystified.

There was another bout of bewildered silence.

"That's my boy," grinned James suddenly. The others laughed.

"Go on Sirius, carry on."

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.  
"It's - it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done ... all the people he's killed ... he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding ...of all the things to stop him ... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"Something I think we'd all like to know," muttered Remus.

**"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"Damn," said Sirius thumping his fist on the armchair arm.

The other looked at him, confused.

"Well, I just thought that if we found out how Harry stopped him, we could do it now! And save you guys," he explained.

"And how would Harry tell us what he did dipstick?" asked James.

Sirius looked stumped for a minute. "Whatever," he muttered childishly.

James laughed. "Keep going Padfoot."

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took out a watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge.**

"I love that watch," said Lily warmly.

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle.**

Lily sat up, green eyes blazing.

"Sirius. Tell. Me. Your. Kidding." she asked, deathly quiet but sounding angrier than she'd ever been.

Angrier than that day at the lake when James, turned Snape upside down.

Angrier then when she came home to find seven month year old Harry on a broomstick, zooming around the garden while James slept in a deck chair on the patio.

"Give him to Tuna?" she screeched. "You can't Dumbledore!"

"Why hasn't he gone to Padfoot?" asked James desperately, looking horrified at the very thought of Harry going near the Dursley's.

Sirius shook his head, glaring at the book, muttering curses under his breath in anger.

The book suddenly caught fire in his hands and Sirius yelped throwing the flaming book to the carpet where the flames spread to the sheepskin rug. James and Remus jumped up frantically and hurriedly extinguished the flames with their wands and vanished the thick black smoke that had started to form.

Sirius was hopping from one foot to the other blowing frantically on his singed fingers, swearing under his breath.

"Sirius you prat!" scowled Remus, coming over to heal his burnt fingertips.

"Stupid wandless magic," muttered Sirius angrily.

James bent to repair the scorched rug and pick up the charred and crumbling book.

"Now look what you did," sighed James, inspecting the ruined book.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" he yelled, swearing as Remus muttered the healing spell.

James repaired the book quickly and handed it back to Sirius who glowered at it heatedly.

They all took their seats again and looked expectantly at Sirius.

"What? Oh right!" he realised, opening the book.

**They're the only family he has left now."**

"But-but what about us?" asked Sirius confusedly.

"I'm guessing we died too," replied Remus sadly.

Sirius nodded and sighed heavily.

**You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't."**

"At least someone's got the right idea! Wow, I just agreed with McGonagall!" cried Sirius amazed.

"Well, she's right!" replied Lily hotly.

**I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

**"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him!**

Lily shook her head sadly. "No. They won't."

**He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!"**

"God, I can't believe Harry has to grow up like this," sighed James, hugging his son close.

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

"I suppose it makes sense," said Remus cheerlessly. "Although he could have picked some better people."

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course.**

**But how is the boy getting here Dumbledore?"**

**She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.  
"Hagrid's bringing him."**

"Oh God," murmured Lily. "I hope Harry holds on tight."

**You think it - wise - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

"As would I," the group uttered in unison.

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?"**

"Oh no," wailed Lily. "How has Hagrid got him there?"

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"It's me! That's my bike! Im here to take Harry away!" yelled Sirius in relief.

Lily and James grinned. "Thank god."

**If the motorbike was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of dustbin lids and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"Hagrid's nicked my bike! That's why I can't get to Harry," frowned Sirius.

"At least someone's got him though," replied Remus softly

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorbike?"**

"Stole it," muttered Sirius crossly.

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir,"**

"I've never_ lent_ my bike to anyone! Not even you Prongs!"

**-said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorbike as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it me."**

"No I wouldn't!" Sirius yelled irritably.

"Sirius, if it was for something as important as getting Harry to safety, you'd lend it wouldn't you," snapped Lily.

"…I suppose," he muttered in reply.

"Not that living with these people is going to be _safe_," piped up James scathingly.

"Safer then living with Sirius," murmured Remus under his breath.

"Oi!" cried Sirius angrily.

"Just carry on with the story Sirius!" yelled Lily impatiently.

**I've got him, sir."**

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir - house was almost destroyed but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we were flyin' over Bristol."**

Lily looked around her home sadly, knowing it was soon to be in ruins.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

"That means he was hit by a curse. And a powerful one at that," said Remus quietly.

Lily's eyes were watering again. "Hit by a curse? But they said he was alright."

"I don't know how he could have survived it," James said softly.

**Is that where - ?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar for ever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned towards the Dursleys' house.**

"Oh please don't Dumbledore," wailed Lily quietly. "They'll hate him."

**"Could I - could I say goodbye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid.**

**He bent his great shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss.**

"Aw, thanks Hagrid," chuckled James.

**Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall. "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

"So?" exclaimed Sirius.

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -"**

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep,-**

"On the doorstep?! He'll roll off! Or they'll tread on him in the morning!" yelled Lily in a panic.

"Harry doesn't move much in his sleep Lils, he'll be alright," said James calmly.

"But he'll be freezing!" cried Lily protectively.

"He's got a blanket," replied James patiently.

"James! Do you care at all about your son!?" she shouted angrily.

James sighed heavily. "Im sure Dumbledore would be careful with him Lily- he loves him."

"Still," She muttered fuming.

**-took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice. "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. **

"You'd better," said Sirius angrily.

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself on to the motorbike and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply**.

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street.**

**He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.  
"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak he was gone.**

"Classic Dumbledore exit," chuckled Remus.

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles,-**

"If she steps on him, I'll hex off her 'perfectly plucked' eyebrows," threatened Lily menacingly.

**-nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley-**

"And his," she growled.

**...He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"**

"I can't believe he has to grow up in that place," whispered James.

"I know," replied Lily sadly. "We'll talk to Dumbledore tomorrow and tell him that if anything happens to us, then Harry is to be given straight to Sirius, if not Remus, and under no circumstances to be taken _anywhere_ near Privet Drive," she said firmly.

"_Nothing _is going to happen to you! Either of you," said Remus determinedly. "We promise."

Sirius nodded. "He won't come within a mile of you _or_ Harry."

"Thank you," replied James and Lily warmly, smiling at the level of their trust and friendship.

"We should all probably head to bed now. Harry completely passed out, and don't think we didn't notice the yawns while you were reading Sirius," grinned James.

Sirius grinned back. "I'm not ashamed. I'm wiped."

"But James…" started Lily, gesturing towards the unfinished novel.

"It will still be here in the morning Lily," he smiled.

Lily started to argue but was cut off by a large yawn.

James laughed out loud. "Point proven."

"Fine." replied Lily dejectedly, reaching for her slumbering son. She started up the stairs with the baby, calling goodnight to Sirius and Remus.

"You guys are okay in the spare rooms yeah?" asked James concernedly.

"We'll be fine Prongs, now go with Lily and be up bright and early to finish the book tomorrow!" smirked Sirius, knowing James' great dislike of getting up.

James groaned. "Just kill me now."

"Well we could ask Voldemort if he wouldn't mind coming a couple of weeks early?" said Sirius in mock seriousness.

James laughed but Remus smacked him with a pillow.

"That's not funny Padfoot," he reprimanded.

"Sorry," replied Sirius, holding up his hands in defeat at the on-going pillow war.

"Night guys," called James as he headed up the stairs.

"Night."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Hope you enjoyed xx

Please please please Review!!

Emma xoxo


	3. The Vanishing Glass

Hi everybody

Okay, First up, I am so so so so so so so so so so so x 100,000,000 sorry about the ridiculous length of time between this chapter and the last. I mean it's embarrassing.

I've just had a lot of stuff happening this past year and have had literally no time to do anything remotely fanficcy 

So I'm really sorry 

If there are any people still interested in this story then here is the next chapter, but I doubt people still check it.

(Please don't hate me) I still like reviews 

Emma xxx

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The Vanishing Glass

Remus sighed heavily, running his fingers through his thick brown locks, before rolling over for the umpteenth time that night.

He'd been uncomfortable about this book right form the start, but his curiosity had compressed his hesitation. He was too interested to find out what Harry's life would be like. Although after hearing what awful hardships the boy had endured before his second birthday, he rather wished he hadn't. To be so young and have so many people taken from you in a way you will never understand. To be ripped from your loved ones and sent to people that can't stand the sight of you.

It wasn't fair.

He glanced at the small clock on the wall absentmindedly.

5:30am.

Remus started. He hadn't realised it was that early. With a low groan he pulled himself off the mattress, yawning. He hadn't slept more then an hour without waking, throughout the entire night. So with a groan he lifted himself off the dipped mattress, pulled on some rumpled robes and headed for the kitchen to make a cup of tea. As he entered the large room he smirked at Sirius who had fallen asleep at the kitchen table, obviously waiting for everyone to wake up to continue the novel. Sirius never had been a patient man. The ceiling creaked quietly and Remus smiled. He wouldn't have to wait much longer.

Lily, James, and a sleepy baby Harry trundled down the stairs in a sleepy daze. Cradling her son tenderly, Lily stepped into her kitchen and greeted a tired looking Remus quietly.

"Morning," Remus replied softly from the kitchen table. James followed his wife through the doorway and sniggered at the ruffled mop of black hair resting on his table. Sirius was snoring quietly on the table cloth, his back rising and falling with his deep breaths. James grinned mischievously before taking a breath.

"MORNING PADFOOT!" he bellowed, causing Sirius roar, to bolt up off the table and cover his ears. He glared at James through his hair and scowled darkly.

"James!" exclaimed Lily, smacking him in the shoulder with a rolled up copy of The Daily Prophet Remus had silently handed her. "You'll wake the entire street!"

James laughed at his cursing friend who was sulking over the cup of steaming coffee Lily pushed into his hands. "So some breakfast, and then the book yes?" he asked the room. The occupants nodded and settled down for breakfast.

In little less then ten minutes the marauders, Lily, and Harry, seated happily on the sheepskin rug chewing enthusiastically on Lily's old hat, were seated comfortably in their respective chairs waiting for Remus to begin.

"Okay… Chapter two, the vanishing glass," read Remus clearly.

**Nearly ten years had passed-**

"Ten Years!" yelped Lily. "Ten… Years!" she cried again her voice rising. "Why the hell has he been left in that hole for ten flipping years?!" she screamed her voice reaching crescendo that had Remus covering his ears, wincing.

"Lily if you let him read we'll find out," said James comfortingly, but with a stiff face and blazing eyes.

**-since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father,-**

"What's a computer game?" Sirius asked, puzzled.

"It's a game you put on a computer, which is a box that you can write stuff on and search stuff on, - well its quite confusing Sirius, but it's not important," replied Lily exasperatedly.

Sirius huffed and motioned for Remus to continue.

**being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Ha! We got him! We must have got him!" whooped Sirius standing up and punching the air.

Lily laughed in relief and hugged James to her tightly who was laughing also.

"Err guys…" piped up Remus quietly who had been studying the page.

"What?" enquired James tentatively.

Remus sighed heavily.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there,**

Sirius visibly slumped down into his armchair and Lily bit back a tear, clutching James' wrist.

"Just…carry on Moony," said James dejectedly. Remus nodded solemnly.

**asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake, and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day.**

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.  
"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. He rolled on to his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"Hey! He remembers my bike!" cried Sirius delightedly.

"Many people do Sirius, but not in a good way," quipped Remus. Sirius huffed.

"People love my bike." He muttered under his breath. Remus' head jerked up from the book again.

"Hagrid is one person. Not 'people' Sirius," Remus smiled. Lily looked up from her quiet conversation with James.

"I like Sirius' bike," piped up Lily with a grin. "Me and my friend Julie thought it was really sexy." She said with a blush and giggle. James looked anxiously down at the red head resting against his chest and then up at his best friend and scowled. He hated it when someone fed Sirius' ever growing ego. Sirius stuck out his tongue at Remus and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Lily and winked.

"Oi," said James warningly. "Listen to the book Sirius."

Remus just shook his head.

**His aunt was back outside the door.  
"Are you up yet?" she demanded.  
"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"Duddy?!" James repeated with a snigger. Sirius was laughing openly and Lily was giggling. Remus just muttered 'poor kid' and continued.

**Harry groaned.  
"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.  
"Nothing, nothing ..."  
Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

James started suddenly. "Excuse me?! Where does my son sleep?"

"Under the stairs it would seem," replied Remus with a small out of character growl.

"Bloody, insensitive, heartless muggles." Sirius mumbled. Lily didn't say anything but the look on her face told James she was reeling off hexes in her mind.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favourite punch-bag was Harry,**

Lily snarled silently at the book

**but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

"That's the seeker in him," said James with pride. "All the Potters are fast."

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green eyes. He wore round glasses held together by a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

"God, Tuna's raised a bullish brat," Lily spat with an unusual amount of venom. "But he must look exactly like you James." Her voice was warmer now.

"Typical Potter." smiled James sadly.

**The only thing Harry liked about his appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could remember and the first question he could ever remember asking his aunt was how he had got it.  
"In the car crash when your parents died,"**

"Excuse me?! Car crash?! A bloody car crash? That's what she told him?!" yelled James indignantly. Lily was fuming

"Our son doesn't even know how we died?! God, does he even know about magic-

Abruptly the room fell silent.

"Do-do you think he does? Know about our world?" asked Lily suddenly timid, looking up at her husband.

"Knowing them lot, probably not," replied James sourly.

**she had said. "and don't ask questions."**

**Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.  
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. **

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.**

"Potter hair," beamed James. "There's no taming it."

"Trust me I've tried." muttered Lily.

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not muck neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Remus chuckled appreciatively and Sirius sniggered. "Should turn him into one."

"Well there wouldn't be much to change," Remus replied.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

**"All right then, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.**

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another **_**two**_** presents while we're out today. How's that popkin? **_**Two**_** more presents. Is that all right?"**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work**

**Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty ..."**

"Bloody hell. Even Wormtail wouldn't have this much trouble." Sirius muttered

**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair**.

**At that moment the telephone rang**

**and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone, looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"He has a name, Dursley." James growled.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend to, adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"Urgh…hate cats." shuddered Sirius.

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.**

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws and Tufty again.**

"They're original." Remus mumbled.

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

**"Don't be silly Vernon, she hates the boy."**

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

Lily stood up, scooped her baby off the rug and turned him face her. Harry gurgled appreciatively at the attention.

"Don't let anyone tell you that you're something not worth it – like a slug. Okay?" Lily told her son. Harry hiccupped in response and started wriggling for release. Lily placed him gently on the carpet once again and settled back against James, who wrapped an arm around her slim waist.

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"**

**"On holiday in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer.)**

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

"He should." James and Sirius smirked in unison. The looked up and grinned at each other. Lily rolled her eyes.

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car ..."**

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone ..."**

"Merlin, he's not a savage!" cried Sirius in annoyance.

**Dudley began to cry loudly.**

**In fact he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

**"Dinky Duddydums,**

Even Remus snorted at this name.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

**"I ... don't ... want ... him ... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

**Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, Good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.**

**Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

"Sounds like someone we know," Sirius smirked.

"Sirius, don't be rude! He's our friend," Lily reprimanded.

"Joke, joke jeez!" replied Sirius holding up his hands. "Where is Wormtail anyway?"

"Said he had some family stuff to take car of," Remus answered.

"Oh…okay."

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.**

"He sounds almost as pleasant as _Dinky Duddydums_," said Remus with distaste.

**Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.**

"Bloody deserves some fun after living with them lot for ten years," James said darkly.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's,**

"Spit on him Harry," snarled Sirius.

And Harry did just that.

"Ugh! Harry! Him not me!" cried Sirius cringing as the dribble soaked through his sock. Harry started at his Godfathers shout. His face screwed up and he began to sob pitifully. Sirius bent down and picked the baby up quickly, mentally hitting himself for his outburst. "Hey, hey, I'm sorry Prongslet, I didn't mean to shout," soothed Sirius rubbing Harry's back comfortingly. Lily stood up kissed Harry's forehead over Sirius' shoulder and addressed the room.

"Does anyone want a drink?"

"Butterbeer would be nice love," replied James with a smile. She smiled back and looked towards Remus.

"Cup of tea, if it's not too much trouble Lily," Remus responded warmly.

"Sirius?"

"No, no I'm fine thanks," he answered still rocking Harry who had quietened to a gentle wheeze now. Sirius looked around the room quickly and then back at the baby.

"Okay, just quickly and don't tell your mum."

Sirius heaved Harry high above his head and the young boy squealed in joy as he passed the lampshade and then landed in Sirius' arms again on descent.

James rolled his eyes. "If she catches you…"

"I'll take the risk, he loves it," Sirius countered before tossing Harry upwards again.

"How many sugars Remus?" Lily called from the kitchen. Sirius caught Harry and darted for the floor, where he swiftly lay on his back and positioned Harry on his chest. James flung him a pillow, which Sirius pushed under his head.

"Two please Lily," Remus called back. Moments later Lily sauntered back in with a tray and handed Remus and James their drinks. She bowed over Sirius' head a pushed a chocolate biscuit between his lips, before settling with her own drink.

"Mmm 'fank 'oo," said Sirius his voice muffled. Harry reached up to pull the snack from Sirius' mouth but his Godfather gently batted his hand away.

"Nu uh. Not for you sport."

Harry threatened to turn on the waterworks once more but distracted himself with lying on his stomach and trying to chew the buttons off Sirius' robes.

"Shall we carry on?" Remus asked. The residents of the room nodded.

**"I'm warning you now, boy –any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly ..."**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No ever did.  
The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she left 'to hide that horrible scar'.**

"Bitch." Sirius whispered, running his fingers through Harry's silky black locks.

**Dudley laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and his Sellotaped glasses.**

"Idiot Muggles." James grumbled.

**Next morning, however, he had got up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

Sirius chuckled from the carpet. "That's one way to get around that problem."

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this,**

"What?! A week in a cupboard? For your hair growing?!" cried James in disbelief. "If my parents had done that I would never have seen daylight again."

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles).**

"Sounds attractive," sighed Remus.

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry.**

"Nice one Harry," James laughed.

**Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

**On the other hand, he'd got into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

"Is it just me or he starting to sound more and more like a marauder?" beamed James.

"God help me. There's five of them now." groaned Lily.

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual**

**when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

**The Dursley's had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

"Must have been a hurricane then Harry," Remus smiled.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living-room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. **

**This morning, it was motorbikes. "... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorbike overtook them.**

**"I had a dream about a motorbike," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"**

"Pfft! That's what you think," scoffed Sirius.

**Dudley and Piers snickered.**

**"I know they don't," said Harry. **"**It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even in a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with people. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then,**

**because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice lolly.**

"How thoughtful." said Lily through gritted teeth.

**It wasn't bad either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

Everyone chuckled at this.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys**

**so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him.**

**They ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbockers glory wasn't big enough, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

"This is got to be the best day he's had in ten years," said Lily sadly.

"As soon as he starts Hogwarts, his life will _really_ start Lils." replied James.

"That's if he even gets a letter" she added miserably.

"Of course he will! He's a Potter! And Dumbledore knows I'd haunt him forever if Harry isn't sent a letter." James said firmly.

**Harry felt, afterwards, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"Oh dear…" Remus trailed off.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.**

**Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place.**

**It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car, and crushed it into a dustbin -**

**but at the moment it didn't look in the mood.**

"Shame." said Lily. James grinned at her.

"We're having a bad influence on you," he laughed. She smiled and poked her tongue out at him.

**In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils**.

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered**

**Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard for a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up - at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were level with Harry's.  
It winked.**

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

**The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."**

"Is he talking to the snake?" asked Lily, puzzled.

"He could be a parselmouth," Remus pondered.

"That doesn't run in my family," replied James in disgust. "That's the sign of a dark wizard."

"Well it's the only explanation," Remus retorted.

"Maybe something happened when he met Voldemort? I mean, it could of got like, passed on?" Sirius suggested. Lily shuddered.

"Maybe."

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.  
"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.  
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.  
"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"**

"He's definitely a parselmouth," interrupted Sirius quietly. "I had an uncle that could do it.". Sirius' face wrinkled in distaste.

"Well it doesn't matter, he's our son, and we love him no matter what. In fact it could be quite useful," Lily said firmly, closing the matter.

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could. "Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

Sirius glowered at the book. "Keep your chubby limbs to yourself."

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

James sat up excitedly. "What did he do?"

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"BRILLIANT!" Sirius howled with laughter. He lifted Harry above his head and made aeroplane noises, chuckling to himself. Lily and James were sniggering between themselves and Remus was laughing quietly from the chair.

"Keep going Moony," chortled James.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor - people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.** **As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, " Brazil, here I come ... Thanksss, amigo."**

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg,**

"If only," grumbled Remus.

**while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

"Went out with a girl who nearly did that to me once," smirked Sirius wiggling his eyebrows once more.

"Eurgh, Sirius you're disgusting," said Lily with revulsion. James hit him with a pillow, careful not to dislodge his son.

"I didn't mean it like that!" Sirius protested but winked at Remus. "You two have filthy minds."

Lily sighed and Remus continued.

**But, worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"Oh you little…" sighed James bringing a hand to his forehead.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals,"**

"You can't starve him you freak!" cried Lily in outrage. "It wasn't his fault!"

**-before he collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking in to the kitchen for some food. He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died.**

James pulled Lily tighter against him and laced her fingers with his. They smiled sadly at their son who was lying contentedly on his stomach on top of his Godfather's chest, his small body rising and falling with Sirius' breaths.

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

"Oh god…" Lily started.

"Avada Kedavra," Remus whispered in disbelief. "How in Merlin did he survive it?"

"I don't care, I don't care – because he did. He's safe. Unhappy, but safe." Lily's breath was hitching in her throat and she curled tighter into her husbands embrace.

Sirius had stopped playing with Harry now and was just sat up holding him securely against his upper body. "_No one_ is going to lay so much as a finger on you Prongslet. I promise you that. Not while I'm alive. I swear." Sirius whispered this quietly into Harry's ear, inaudible to the rest of the room. Sirius took a deep breath, his voice catching.

"Go on."

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where the green light came from.**

**He couldn't remember his parents at all.**

Lily released a loud hiccupping sob, "Oh James…"

"Shhh…" he soothed her, pulling her into his lap, one hand wrapping firmly around her ribs, the other burying itself in her long hair. He kissed her shoulder, his own tear soaking into the material of her jumper. "It's not going to happen. We're going to stop this. Destroy him. Together. And Harry will grow up with us Lils. Happy and with people who love him. Look at me sweetheart – Lily look at me."

Lily looked up, eyes red and blotchy and tear tracks running down her cheeks. James took a shuddering breath.

"I promise you Lily. I promise you."

She nodded at her husband slowly. "I believe you James. I trust you," she finished with watery smile. James pulled her forward and kissed her soundly, arms wrapping around her once more.

Sirius was burying his face into Harry's neck and Remus suspected he had become emotional also. Although he wasn't any better. James and Lily's moment had brought a hard lump into his throat as well. He flipped the book back open and carried on.

**His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.**

"This…this is bull Remus!" Sirius burst out suddenly. "Where the hell are we? On holiday in the Bahamas! Why aren't we there for him?!"

Remus sighed. "Padfoot, if James and Lily are dead, it's very probable that we are too."

"I don't give a damn about us! Where is Dumbledore?! Or Hagrid?! Or Arthur and Molly?! Or someone for gods sake!"

Harry was beginning to become agitated so James spoke quietly. "Sirius…"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. Come here Harry, I'm sorry kid. I'm sorry." Sirius stood up gently and paced side to side bouncing Harry gently in his arms. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, keep going, finish it."

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. **

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking woman dressed in all green has waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple cloak had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day, then walked away without another word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That's the end of chapter two," Remus said closing the book and looking up. "Does someone else want to read now? James?"

"Yeah, sure," replied James, taking the book and finding the right spot.

"Padfoot could I…?" Remus gestured to Harry.

"Of course." Sirius handed him the baby and flopped into an armchair.

Remus kissed the top of Harry's soft head and whispered "We're gonna make this right Emeralds. This isn't going to happen to you."

"Okay…ready?" asked James.

"Yes," Remus sat down in the chair once more and rested Harry on his lap, a hand curved protectively around his stomach the other resting in Harry's tiny ones as the baby examined them once more.

"Alright…Chapter Three. The Letters From No One."

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Okay, please R & R!! I still like them!

I'm not going to say when the next chapter will be because I honestly don't know. I'm really sorry, but I have a lot going on 

Love to everyone

Emma xxxxx


	4. The Letters From No One

Hi everyone x

Thanks for all the reviews =D They are much appreciated.

I'm thinking about changing the title, because there are so many stories called this. Any Suggestions?

Also would people want Dumbledore and/or McGonagall present for some chapters? Or any other characters?

Once again concrit is very welcome =D

Enjoy (hopefully)

Disclaimer - I do not own Harry Potter.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Chapter 4 – Letters From No One

James cleared his throat before starting.

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. **

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. **

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting. **

"I can think of a lot of fun huntings; Peeves hunting, girl hunting is especially fun, but Harry hunting is just plain cruel," Sirius said sinisterly.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, - **

"Oh no you're not son!" interrupted James angrily.

"You will be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," added Lily firmly.

"In the best house ever," said Sirius determinedly.

"Under the best Headmaster Hogwarts has ever had," finished Remus with a triumphant smile down at the infant on his lap. Harry looked up into the young werewolf's handsome face and his features broke into a gummy smile.

"Ogarts!" Harry burbled happily. His family laughed cheerfully at him.

"No son of mine will be going to a Muggle school," James said with a shudder, as if the very thought of it disgusted him.

"James? I went to a Muggle school? There's nothing wrong with them?!" said Lily spinning around in outrage. "I turned out fine and so will Harry!"

"No! No - no love I didn't mean it like that! Just…err just that a Potter has never been to Muggle school that's all!" James tried to save himself hurriedly.

"Well then Harry shall be the first, and we should be proud that our son will experience both," Lily replied her tone stating that the matter was closed.

"Smooth, Prongs," murmured Remus from across the room.

"Shut up."

**the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"**They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?" **

"**No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it — it might be sick."**

Sirius laughed heartily. "You've got to give your kid credit Prongs, to have grown up with that lot and still have a decent, marauder sense of humour."

"Harry will be a marauder no matter what his upbringing," James smiled proudly.

**Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. **

**Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake-**

"Aww, see she's a lovely lady really," cooed Lily happily.

"Err Lils, let me finish," said James, with a cough hiding a chuckle.

**-that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"Oh," said Lily, a bit deflated. "Well it was a nice thought."

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life. **

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh. **

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water. **

"**What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question. **

"**Your new school uniform," she said. **

"God, they couldn't even bother to get him a decent uniform?!" Sirius scowled.

"Well he won't need it Padfoot," responded Remus calmly. "Will you Harry?" he asked the small boy tickling his tummy gently. "Because you're going to Hogwarts." Harry shrieked with laughter and rolled from side to side on Remus' lap.

**Harry looked in the bowl again. **

"**Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

"**Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"Pfft! I seriously doubt that," Sirius scowled.

**Harry seriously doubted this.**

"Ha! Like Godfather like son," said Sirius smugly. "Are you sure he's not mine Lily?" he asked cheekily.

James glared at him, but Lily calmly replied "No, we haven't slept together in at least a year."

James blanched, the blood drained from his face and the book tumbled from his hands. "W-what?!" he choked out. Sirius roared with laughter and Lily looked up at him serenely and smiled.

"Im joking, baby," she giggled, putting her hand on his cheek. James growled throatily and launched a pillow across the room at Sirius which it hit with a resounding thump.

"You're such an arse Padfoot," he muttered pulling Lily protectively against him. Sirius winked at her saucily and earned himself another cushion to the face.

"God he never learns," Remus sighed, lifting Harry directly to his eye line. "Don't ever turn out like your godfather Harry. He's a stupid stupid man and does stupid stupid things. And although he does have the occasional stroke of common sense, they don't happen often." Harry poked Remus' cheek mischievously.

"Hey, don't corrupt him against me!" Sirius cried resentfully. "I can be sensible when I want to be!"

Remus laughed and nodded. "Okay, okay I take it back. You are a very serious person Sirius."

Sirius groaned. "Why? Why do you _always_ have to say that?"

"Because it annoys you more then Snivellus ever could."

"Now _that_ is not true," Sirius said sternly but his eyes were laughing with his friend.

"Do you think we could carry on?" Lily asked patiently.

"Sorry."

"Sorry."

"Thank you. James?"

**but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High — like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably. **

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table. **

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat. **

"**Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper. **

"**Make Harry get it." **

"**Get the mail, Harry." **

"**Make Dudley get it." **

"**Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley." **

"I'd love to poke_ him_ with something," Sirius muttered darkly. "Like a sharpened broomstick maybe."

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and — **_**a letter for Harry**_**. **

"Hogwarts," the four friends said in unison. Harry, not wanting to be left out, gurgled loudly on cue.

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives — he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake: **

_**Mr. H. Potter **_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs 4 Privet Drive **_

_**Little Whinging **_

_**Surrey**_

"Definitely Hogwarts. Only they would know he lived in a cupboard," said Lily with a trace of anger in her voice.

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. **

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter **_**H**_**. **

"**Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke. **

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. **

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard. **

"**Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk…" **

"**Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!" **

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon. **

"**That's **_**mine**_**!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back. **

"**Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge. **

"**P-P-Petunia!" he gasped. **

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise. **

"**Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!"**

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick. **

"**I want to read that letter," he said loudly. **

"He better bloody not read Harry's letter!" said James heatedly. "It's Harry's."

"_**I **_**want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's **_**mine**_**." **

"You tell 'em baby," said Lily quietly her emerald eyes flashing dangerously.

"**Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. **

**Harry didn't move. **

"**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

"That's the Evans red hot temper that comes with the red hair," smiled James. Lily glared at him playfully and poked him in the ribs.

"**OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall,**

"OI!" shouted Sirius furiously.

"Let's hope the pig didn't land on you Emeralds," Remus said softly to the baby.

**-slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor. **

"If I ever meet that unpleasant little beast, I'm going to curse something off and it won't be something nice," Lily threatened.

"**Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address — how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?" **

"**Watching — spying — might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"**But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want —" **

"You had better not," James spat rancorously.

"Even if they do it won't work," said Remus reassuringly.

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen. **

"**No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best… we won't do anything…" **

"It wont woooork," hummed Remus happily in a sing song voice. Sirius laughed at him.

"**But —" **

"**I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?" **

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard. **

"Surprised the mammoth of a man fit," snapped Lily.

"**Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?" **

"**No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it." **

"You bastard…" Sirius snarled.

"Sirius! Don't swear in front of Harry!" Lily reprimanded.

"Sorry, but he gets me so bloody angry," Sirius muttered through gritted teeth.

"Then curse in your head."

"**It was **_**not **_**a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it." **

"**SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful. **

"**Er — yes, Harry — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking… you're really getting a bit big for it… we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom. **

"Hold on…while my son as sleeping in a cupboard there was a free bedroom?!" Lily yelled.

"It seems so," replied her husband silently fuming.

"When I see Petunia next I'm gonna…" Lily trailed off, picturing all sorts of lovely, painful curses she could inflict onto her so called sister.

"**Why?" said Harry. **

"**Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now." **

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbour's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite program had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched. **

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't **_**want **_**him in there… I **_**need **_**that room… make him get out…"**

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it. **

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. **

**When the mail arrived,**

"Run Harry, Quick!" called Sirius hastily.

James sighed. "Unfortunately they're not_ that_ stupid."

"Oh you haven't met them," Lily muttered.

**Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. **

"For once," Remus murmured.

**They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive —'" **

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.**

"Go on son!" shouted James enthusiastically.

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand. **

"**Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley — go — just go." **

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan. **

"Ahhh the inner marauder reveals himself," said Remus with a grin.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. **

"This is sounding promising…" started Lily.

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door — **

"**AAAAARRRGH!" **

"AAAAAARRGHH!"

James had read out this particular passage with a theatrical yell, and Lily had screamed and leapt from the sofa with a shriek. Sirius had jumped with a small shout, and Remus had flinched violently. Harry looked as if he didn't know whether to scream or laugh. Lily recovered and swiped James sharply across the head.

"What the hell did you do that for?!" she yelled at him. James held up his hands in surrender and laughed warmly.

"Sorry, just going for some dramatic effects," he laughed but hiding it with a cough from Lily's death glare.

"Anyway…what the hell happened to Harry?" asked Sirius concernedly.

James flipped back to the right spot.

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat — something **_**alive**_**! **

"Damn," grumbled Remus. "He isn't _so_ stupid after all."

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

"Eurgh. That's disgusting," said Lily screwing up her nose.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink. **

"**I want —" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes. **

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot. **

"**See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't **_**deliver **_**them they'll just give up." **

"That's what you think," smile Sirius.

"**I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon." **

"**Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him. **

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom. **

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises. **

"God, what a nutter," said Remus. The other three nodded in agreement.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two-dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor. **

"**Who on earth wants to talk to **_**you **_**this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy. **

"**No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today —" **

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one — **

"Potter Seeker skills should come in handy," James said with pride.

"**Out! OUT!" **

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor. **

"**That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" **

**He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag. **

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while. **

"**Shake 'em off… shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer. **

"Sounds like an exciting life," James said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Hear hear," added Remus in an undertone.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table. **

"'**Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk." **

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address: **

_**Mr. H. Potter **_

_**Room 17 **_

_**Railview Hotel **_

_**Cokeworth **_

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared. **

"**I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room. **

"**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. **

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage. **

"**Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. **

"A little bit yeah," said Sirius his voice threatening a laugh.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. **

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled. **

"**It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a **_**television**_**." **

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it **_**was **_**Monday — and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television — then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. **

"God...eleven years old," James repeated sorrowfully. "And he has to spend it with those people in the middle of no where."

Remus picked Harry up again and told him loudly and clearly. "Happy eleventh birthday Harry. We love you." Placing the child back in his lap he turned to his friends. "Maybe he'll remember that" he said with a smile.

Lily sniffed. "Maybe."

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun — last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks. **

"Cheap bastards," Sirius had whispered under his breath in a menacing tone.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day. **

"For someone who grew up like he did, he's got a great attitude to life," Remus smiled widely.

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. **

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought. **

"**Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!" **

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there. **

"**Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!" **

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them. **

"**I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!" **

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house. **

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. **

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shrivelled up. **

"Well what do you expect?" mumbled James.

"**Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

"Oh I wouldn't tempt fate Dursley," warned Sirius with a dry chuckle.

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all. **

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket. **

"So that's how my son is going to spend the night he turns eleven? On a cold floor with just a blanket to k-keep him w-warm? Lily said brokenly, letting out a small sob. James kissed her softly through her hair, rubbing her back comfortingly. Remus tucked the baby into the front of his robes and Harry gave an appreciative yawn before taking bunches of the material in his tiny fists and curling up against Remus' stomach. Remus cupped a hand around his small curved back and shifted him closer. He gestured to Lily with a free elbow.

"He may be cold and miserable in the book, but I promise you that he's as toasty as possible here Lily"

Lily hiccupped and smiled at her young son, snuggling into Remus.

"Im okay…you can carry on James."

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now. **

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow. **

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? **

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine — maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him — three… two… one… **

**BOOM. **

"Oh god…" whispered Lily into James chest.

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"Any ideas?" asked James.

"I don't want to _guess _James, I just want to know," replied Lily quietly.

"Keep going Prongs," said Sirius earnestly.

"That's the end of the chapter," said James holding up the page.

"Okay, I'll read now," said Lily, taking the book from her husband.

"Chapter five…The Keeper of the Keys."

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Please Review!

Also tell me what you think about the title and new characters!

Emma xxx


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